Preston North End boss Graham Alexander hoping to seal signing of free agent with former England international mooted
Preston North End boss Graham Alexander has revealed the club are actively pursuing a number of free agents in an attempt to help instigate an upturn in fortunes.
The former Bradford City boss has endured a difficult start to life at Deepdale seeing his new charges beaten in all three of their Championship matches under his stewardship so far.
Heavy back-to-back losses against Birmingham City and Wrexham, in which the Lancashire side shipped eight goals in, has left the Lilywhites rooted to the foot of the table ahead of Saturday's clash with play-off hopefuls West Bromwich Albion.
While Alexander is hoping for some imminent positive news on the availability of a number of players who have been nursing injuries in recent weeks, including summer signings Harry Clarke and Stanley Mills, the Scotsman has revealed he is looking to bolster his squad with new acquisitions.
With the winter window not opening until January, the club's only hope of adding fresh faces to their squad is via the free agent market, with the Preston head coach confirming talks have taken place in-house regarding potential additions.
"Yeah, we've sort of spoke about that this week in particular actually," Alexander told The Lancashire Post.
We are looking at who's potentially available, if they can come in and help us, potentially.
- Graham Alexander (The Lancashire Post)
"The problem you've got there is you're probably bringing in players who are not at the level fitness wise to help us in the short term.
"Unless they've been training with a team consistently or with the PFA and stuff like that. That's the information we're trying to find out right now."
The likes of Conor Coady, Ryan Kent and Jamal Lascelles have all been mooted as names the club could be interested in acquiring, although it's expected that only one fresh face is likely to arrive before the end of the year.
Strict EFL squad rules stipulate that no club can name more than 25 players in their squad, and with North End having already confirmed 24 names, it means there is only one slot remaining open.
However, one potential loophole means a club could deregister a player should they be ruled out of action through injury or illness for a prolonged period of time, providing they are granted permission by the EFL.
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